stance, rests upon a false, or at least an uncertain foundation. The afflicted Psalmist seems to refer, not so much to the plaintive voice of these birds, as to their lonely situation in the wilderness. One of the first and most common effects of pungent sorrow, is the desire of solitude; and on this occasion, the royal Psalmist, oppressed with grief, seems to have become weary of society, and like the pelican, or the female ostrich, to have contracted a relish for deep retirement. Besides, as our author allows that the pelican and the bittern differ only in the form of the bill, the translation for which he contends is of no real importance; and it is certainly a good rule to admit of no change in a received translation, unless it can be shewn, that the new term or phrase expresses the meaning of the original with greater justness, propriety, or elegance.

The Stork.

This bird has long been celebrated for her amiable and pious dispositions, in which she has no rival among the feathered race. Her Hebrew name is hasida, which signifies pious or benign; to the honour of which, her character and habits, as described by the pen of antiquity, prove her to be fully entitled. She is thus celebrated by an ancient poet :

"Ciconia etiam grata, peregrina, hospita
Pietati-cultrix.".

Petronius.

Her kind benevolent temper she discovers in feeding her parents in the time of incubation, when they have not leisure to seek their food, or when they have become old, and unable to provide for themselves. This attention of the stork to her parents, is confirmed by the united voice of

a

a Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vii, p. 257, 258.

antiquity; and we find nothing in the Scriptures to invalidate the testimony.b

She was classed by the Jewish lawgiver among the unclean birds, probably because she feeds on serpents, and other venemous animals, and rears her young by means of the same species of food. This fact is attested by Juvenal in these lines:

serpente ciconia pullos

Nutrit et inventa per devia rura lacerta." c

Sat. 14.

In the challenge which the Almighty addressed to Job, the wings and feathers of the ostrich are compared with those of the stork; "Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks, or wings and feathers unto the ostrich ;" or as it is rendered by the learned Bochart, and after him by Dr Shaw: "the plumage of the stork." Natural historians inform us, that the wings are tipped with black, and a part of the head and thighs are adorned with feathers of the same colour; the rest of the body is white. Albert says, the stork has black wings, the tail, and other parts white; while Turner asserts, that the wings are white, spotted with black. From these different accounts, it is evident that the feathers of the stork are black and white, and not always disposed in the

same manner.

She constructs her nest with admirable skill, of dry twigs from the forest, and coarse grass from the marsh; but, wisely yielding to circumstances, she does not confine herself to one situation. At one time she selects for her dwelling the pinnacle of a deserted tower, or the canal

b Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, p. 327. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. x, cap. 23. Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iii, cap. 23, and lib. x, cap. 16.

Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vii, p. 259.

of an ancient aqueduct; at another, the roof of a church or dwelling house. She frequently retires from the noise and bustle of the town, into the circumjacent fields;a but she never builds her nest on the ground. She chooses the highest tree of the forest for her dwelling; but always prefers the fir, when it is equally suitable to her purpose.* This fact is clearly stated by the Psalmist, in his medition on the power of God: "As for the stork, the fir trees are her house." In another passage, the Psalmist calls the nest of the sparrow her house: "Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young." In the use of this beautiful figure, the inspired bard is supported by one of the highest human authorities :

"Antiquasque domos avium cum stirpibus imis
Eruit."

Gcor. lib. ii, 1. 209.

proper

But the term house is not used in these passages, merely by a figure of speech; if the description of ancient writers be true, it is in every respect the most and expressive that can be selected. The stork chooses the site of her dwelling with much care and intelligence; she combines her materials with great art, and prosecutes her plan with surprising exactness. After the structure is finished, she examines it on all sides, tries its firmness and solidity, supplies any defect she may discover, and with admirable industry, reduces with her bill an unsightly projection, or ill-adjusted twig, till it perfectly correspond with her instinctive conception of safety, neatness, and comfort.h

d Varro de Re Rust. lib. iii, c. 5.

f Psa. civ, 17.

h Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vii, p. 244.

Shaw's Trav. vol. ii, p. 272.
Psa. lxxxiv, 3.

The inspired writer alludes to this bird, with an air of constant and intimate acquaintance: "As for the stork, the fir tree is her house." We learn from the narrative of Doubdan, that the fields between Cana and Nazareth are covered with numerous flocks of them, each flock containing, according to his computation, more than a thousand. In some parts, the ground is entirely whitened by them; and on the wing, they darken the air like a congeries of clouds. At the approach of evening, they retire to roost on the trees. The inhabitants carefully abstain from hurting them, on account of their important services in clearing the country of venemous animals.

The annual migration of this bird, did not escape the notice of the prophet Jeremiah, who employs it with powerful effect for the purpose of exposing the stupidity of God's ancient people: "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed time, and the turtle, the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord." They know, with unerring precision, the time when it is necessary for them to remove from one place to another, and the region whither they are to bend their flight; but the people of God, that received many special revelations from heaven, and enjoyed the continual instructions of his prophets, had become so depraved, that they neither understood the meaning of mercies nor judgments,-they knew

i P. 513.

j De Tott says the stork is held in veneration by the eastern nations as a sort of household god. Memoirs, vol. i, p. 322. And Buffon asserts that the ancients reckoned it a crime to kill a stork; and in Thessaly the murderer of one of these birds was punished by death; so precious were they held in that country, which they cleared of serpents. Vol. vii, p. 259. * Jer. viii, 7.

not how to accommodate themselves to either, nor to an swer the design of heaven in such dispensations,-they knew not the signs of their times, nor what they ought to do. The stork, that had neither instructor to guide her, nor reason to reflect and judgment to determine, what was proper to be done, found no difficulty in discerning the precise time of her departure and return.1

m

Some interpreters imagine, that by the phrase," the stork in the heaven," the prophet means to distinguish between the manner of her departure, and that of other migrating birds. The storks collect in immense numbers, and darken the air with their wide extended squadrons, as they wing their flight to other climes; while many other birds of passage, come and go in a more private and concealed manner. But, if this was the prophet's design, he ought not to have introduced the crane, or our translators should have found another sense for the term which he uses; for the crane is seen pursuing her annual journey through the heavens equally as the stork, and in numbers sufficient to engage the public attention. When Dr. Chandler was in Asia, about the end of August, he saw cranes flying in vast caravans, passing high in the air, from Thrace as he supposed, on their way to Egypt. But, in the end of March, he saw them in the Lesser Asia, busily engaged in picking up reptiles, or building their nests. Some of them, he assures us, built their nests in the ruins of an old fortress; and that the return of the crane, and the beginning of the bees to work, are considered there as a sure sign that the winter is past."

Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. x, c. 23. Ælian de Nat. Animal. lib. iii, c. 23. m Dr. Shaw's Trav. vol. ii, p. 269.

n

Chandler's Trav. in Asia, p. 22.